


Mendocino County Line

by wildwesternwoman



Category: Red Dead Redemption (Video Games)
Genre: F/M, Gender-neutral Reader, Other, Songfic, Sort of Sad but Only Sort of, Wistful, gender-neutral
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-24
Updated: 2020-04-24
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:01:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23823502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wildwesternwoman/pseuds/wildwesternwoman
Summary: Talking ‘bout redemption and leaving things behind as the sun sank west of the Mendocino County line.
Relationships: Eagle Flies (Red Dead Redemption)/Reader
Kudos: 13





	Mendocino County Line

**Author's Note:**

> Ok, so this is my first go at this in like a year and my first ever try at writing for Eagle Flies, but I’ve been replaying the game and just got to him and remembered how much I adored him. This is Modern!AU and also kinda bittersweet. Feedback is always appreciated!

He wished he could say he went West on a whim. But he didn’t do things like that, not really. As hot headed as he seemed, he was truly meticulous. He thought about every path he might take, what the repercussions and opportunities might be for each. So, when he went West, he really, truly, thought he knew what he was doing. But when he met you? Oh, boy, all reasoning went out the window.

It was a love full of unbridled passion. He was your everything and you his. Your first date, to see Fourth of July fireworks, was rather fitting in this way. The bursts of color mimicking what would be the fire of your future – both the good and the bad. He just enjoyed seeing the color reflected in your eyes.

You’d met him early in the summer. You always worked part time at a ranch during the summer. You did this more out of a love of nature and the animals there than for the money. He was a new ranch hand just in from up north. You liked him immediately, despite his hard headed ways. He was good with the horses and, somehow, handled the endless barrage of guests making cowboys and Indians jokes.

He was Wapiti, he had told you. He wasn’t surprised when you’d expressed that you had no idea what that was. But you genuinely wanted to know about him and his culture. You listened to everything he had to tell and he fell head over heels for that. He absolutely adored the way you really, truly listened to him. He’d left because he was tired of how his father handled things, he explained. “Avoiding conflict is preferable, but a light hand is not always possible,” he’d told you.

And you? He wanted to know all about you, too. How’d you come to be here? What in your life lead you to this point, where you lay naked in his bed and his fingertips gently explored your back? You weren’t running from anything, not anything tangible, anyway. Maybe running to something, you thought. You didn’t know. You just knew you had to get away from where you were, or you were sure you would smother.

You’d been headed for Los Angeles. The City of Angels, right? Whatever awaited you there had to be better than what you left behind. But, you’d never made it that far. This country was big and it was expensive and so you’d landed in Mendocino. You’d been there a couple years before he came along. You’d grown to love it, but he was still restless.

The way you’d talked about Los Angeles, maybe that’s where he’d find his peace. You wanted to badly to be his peace, though. You wanted to provide that stability to him. You’d found what you were looking for here, why couldn’t he? Why couldn’t this life that you’d built here – this paradise – been enough?

The passion never really died, but you could feel him pulling away emotionally. He was not long for this town and you realized that before he did. So, you soaked up every minute with the angel you’d been blessed to encounter. You took photographs of even the mundane things. Driving to the store, caring for the horses, eating breakfast together. You’d cherish them forever, as would he.

The night after he left, you sat on the bedroom floor admiring them. The pain was fresh at that time and boy, did it hurt like a bitch. But that was life, wasn’t it? You had been so fortunate to find what you were looking for here, he deserved to find what he was looking for, too. You only wished it could’ve been you, that you could’ve made him happy.

And you did, you made him so happy. But you didn’t fulfill him, no matter how much he wished you did, and God, did he wish. He taped his favorite picture of you to his dashboard and it stayed there for years while he tried to figure out what the hell it was he was on this Earth to do. Some days, he wished he’d never left you behind. But that was life, wasn’t it?

You always would remember each other fondly, a bright love that you both need to experience. But you would especially remember him as you watched the sun sink west of the Mendocino County Line.


End file.
